A Perfect Time For A Great Prayer Habit
Now … a month removed from our Holy Father’s apostolic visit to America … is a perfect time for all of us to begin a great prayer habit. Let’s all commit to praying daily – with and for Pope Francis. The Apostleship of Prayer can and will help us.
Based in Milwaukee, Wis., and active since 1844, the apostleship actively encourages us to pray daily with our Holy Father for his intentions, and to add our own prayers for him and his work. Here is its mission statement:
“The mission of the Apostleship of Prayer is to encourage Christians to make a daily offering of themselves to the Lord for the coming of God's Kingdom and for the Holy Father's monthly intentions. This habit of prayer encourages a Eucharistic spirituality of solidarity with the Body of Christ and loving service to others. Nourishing this spiritual program is the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis is on the apostleship’s board, and he recently wrote to his brother bishops across the country about its good work. He noted that its growth – tenfold in the past decade – has included youngsters, teens and young adults. “Helping young people to grow in prayer is critical to keeping them faithful to the Church for their entire lives,” he wrote.
The Apostleship of Prayer website is simple: http://apostleshipofprayer.org. There, you will find Pope Francis’ monthly prayer intentions, and you can register to become a free member of the group. I did.
We will do our best to publish Pope Francis’ monthly prayer intentions in The Message, and we will post them to our various social media channels. Please share them when you see them, and encourage others to do so – and to pray daily for them.
The Apostleship of Prayer boasts more than 50 million members worldwide. That’s no small number … or is it? If numbers are accurate and there are 1.1 billion Catholics in the world, those 50 million papal prayer warriors represent less than five percent of all Catholics.
We can do better than that.
App news
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched “Catholic Church,” an app for iOS and Android devices that also kind of morphs into an app on Windows Phones. That is, the website automatically bookmarks itself with an app icon, and the website user interface turns into the same as those you find on the iOS and Android apps. I’m grateful to the designer(s) who came up with that trick.
“Catholic Church” includes papal news, news from around the rest of the Catholic world, daily Mass readings and other prayer resources. You may wish to add it to your digital, spiritual toolbox.
The Pope App is another good one to have. Offered by the Vatican News Service, it has a lot of great features that, when combined with “Catholic Church,” will keep you on top of news from around our Catholic World.
Finally … go the http://themessageonline.org from your digital device. The website detects that you’re on a tablet or phone and provides an app-like user interface. Together with “Catholic Church” and “The Pope App,” The Message Online, you’ll be all set.
